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Sentence Stress in Spoken English A PowerPoint Lesson Plan for IPG students

Ruth Wickham, Brighton Education Training Fellow, IPGKDRI 2011

Sentence Stress in Spoken English

1 Ruth Wickham, Brighton Education Training Fellow, IPGKDRI

Contents Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 2

English Pronunciation: Sentence Stress Workshop ............................................................................. 2

Meaning and Stress ....................................................................................................................... 2

Stress-Timed Language .................................................................................................................. 3

Beat and Rhythm ....................................................................................................................... 3

Rap ................................................................................................................................................ 6

Rhythmic actions ........................................................................................................................... 6

Sentence Stress in Spoken English

2 Ruth Wickham, Brighton Education Training Fellow, IPGKDRI

Introduction This PowerPoint lesson plan is part of a series on stress and intonation for IPG students.

Slide 1

English Pronunciation: Sentence Stress

Workshop

Slide 2

We can tolerate a lot of variation in pronunciation of various

phonemes – as evidenced by the various accents and dialects. But

when the sentence stress is incorrect, we are readily confused.

Slide 3

Meaning and Stress In special cases the meaning is dependent on the stress. For

example, when we are correcting what someone said, or when we

are checking that we heard correctly.

Slide 4

We are going to try identifying meaning from some specific stress patterns.

Slide 5

Here is one sentence said in four different ways, with four entirely

different meanings.

Sentence Stress in Spoken English

3 Ruth Wickham, Brighton Education Training Fellow, IPGKDRI

Slide 6

Stress-Timed Language The English language is described (by some) as a stress-timed language. While some disagree with this description, the point is that it has a different pattern to other languages such as, for example, Chinese.

Slide 7

With a stress-timed language, the time taken to say something is

defined by the number of stressed words. Including extra

unstressed words does not (necessarily) make the sentence take

longer to say because the added words are spoken quickly or hardly

at all.

Slide 8

Beat and Rhythm Sentences can be spoken rhythmically to a steady beat, with the

unstressed word just fitting in between. Here is an example.

Slide 9

Which of the words in this sentence would be stressed?

Slide

10

Here is the same sentence showing the stressed words.

Slide

11

Here is another sentence – which are the stressed words?

Sentence Stress in Spoken English

4 Ruth Wickham, Brighton Education Training Fellow, IPGKDRI

Slide

12

Here is the same sentence with stress added.

Slide

13

Here is another sentence. By now you should be beginning to see a

pattern with these particular sentences!

Slide

14

Here is the stress pattern for this sentence.

Slide

15

It should be easy to work out the stressed words for this sentence.

Slide

16

Here are the stressed words.

Slide

17

Another example.

Sentence Stress in Spoken English

5 Ruth Wickham, Brighton Education Training Fellow, IPGKDRI

Slide

18

And the answers.

Slide

19

Here is another example along the same pattern.

Slide

20

Here is the answer.

Slide

21

Try another.

Slide

22

The answers.

Slide

23

One last example.

Sentence Stress in Spoken English

6 Ruth Wickham, Brighton Education Training Fellow, IPGKDRI

Slide

24

The answer.

Slide

25

Rap Here is a simple rap.

Slide

26

Work with your group to practice saying the rap.

Slide

27

Another rap. Try making up your own ‘Likes, doesn’t like” rap.

Slide

28

Here is a cumulative rap. Can you create your own in this style?

Slide

29

Rhythmic actions Here are some rhythmic actions for the following rap.

Sentence Stress in Spoken English

7 Ruth Wickham, Brighton Education Training Fellow, IPGKDRI

Slide

30

3 Bears Rap, with actions

Follow the instructions, practise with your group.

Slide

31

3 Bears continued

Slide

32

3 Bears final

Slide

33

It can be pretty exhausting though.